Samyutta Nikaya (The Connected Discourses) Scott Foglesong Commentaries from Sutra Study NOTE: I have studied the Theravada suttas (sutras) as part of a study group for some years now. During one year, we devoted ourselves to the Connected Discourses (Samyutta Nikaya). These documents are my notes from that study period. There isn't commentary on every single sutta in the Samyutta Nikaya, to say the least, or even on every samyutta (note that IV is altogether missing), but here's what I have. We used Bhikkhu Bodhi's magnificent translation (here's a link to it), which contains reams of commentary as well. There's also a fine set of online translations (not quite complete) by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, to be found at the Access to Insight website. This is the link to the section on the Samyutta Nikaya. http://www.scottfoglesong.com/buddhism/sn_commentary/sn_top.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20060616013208/http://www.scottfoglesong.com/buddhism/sn_commentary/sn_top .htm Samyutta nikaya suttas summary Sagatha vagga 1 Devatasamyutta 1: Cross the flood. The four floods which keep us submerged in the round of existence: a. Flood of sensuality b. Flood of existence c. Flood of views d. Flood of ignorance. 45:171 on these floods: “This Noble Eightfold Path is to be developed for direct knowledge of these four floods, for the full understanding of them, for their utter destruction, for their abandoning.” Flood of views: D I 12-38, the Brahmajala Sutta, lists the sixty-two kinds of wrong views. I won’t list them all there, but some are: eternity of the self eternity of the world eternalists (there’s a story about a being who is a Brahma) corruption in mind – envy infinite world self after death In short, it’s a cornucopia of the various viewpoints which abounded in northern India in the B’s day. By not halting, friend, and by not straining, I crossed the flood. This would normally be the way that one crossed a flood. Thus there is a slightly ambiguous character to this answer; it is designed to elicit a question of ‘how’ from the devata. When I came to a standstill, friend, then I sank; but when I struggled, then I got swept away. The ‘standstill’ is halting: the defilements, the hindrances. The straining or struggling is volitional formations – views and concepts – which can sweep us away. There are seven dyads for understanding: Sink Swept Away defilements volitional formations craving and views other defilements craving views eternalist view annihilationist view slackness restlessness sensual pleasures asceticism unwholesome volitional formations mundane wholesome volitional formations A brahmin who is fully quenched The use of brahmin here means an arahant. (This occurs in other suttas as well.) In the Dhammapada, verse 388 we have: ‘As “one who has banished wrong” is one a brahmana’ and then a series of verses 396 – 423 that identify the brahmana. Consider 420: Whose course Gods, gandhabbas, and humans do not know, Whose intoxicants are extinct, an arahant, that one I call a brahmana. Note the use of “quenched.” It’s interesting: you quench fire and thirst. The actual word is parinibbuto – which is parinirvana in Sanskrit. This is what the devata said. According to the commentary, he became a stream-enterer on the spot. The Pali Canon has a surprising number of sudden awakening experiences. Stream-entry as being similar to bodhicitta – see Sangharakshita’s “The Bodhisattva Ideal”, pg. 43: “…the evidence we have suggests that from a purely spiritual perspective, as far as we can tell, what was originally meant by Stream Entry is more or less the same as what is meant by the arising of the bodhicitta.” 2: …emancipation, release, seclusion… Emancipation – nimokkha. This is the path, the way. Release – pamokkha. This is the fruit: at the moment of the fruit beings have been released from the bondage of defilements. Seclusion – viveka. This is Nibbana, separating all beings from suffering. OR we can think of all three as designations for Nibbana, for upon the attainment of Nibbana, beings are emancipated, released, separated from all suffering. By the utter destruction of delight in existence This seems to mean the destruction of craving for existence. 3: The stages of life successively desert us. Youth deserts us at middle age; middle age deserts us at old age; all three desert us at the time of death. 5: Cut off five: the five lower fetters – identity view, doubt, distorted grasp of rules and vows, sensual desire, ill-will. Abandon five: the five higher fetters – lust for form, lust for the formless, conceit, restlessness, ignorance. Develop five (in order to cut off and abandon the other ten): the five spiritual faculties – faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom. A bhikkhu who has surmounted five ties: these are lust, hatred, delusion, conceit, and views. …crosser of the flood: crossing the four floods, described in the commentary to #1. 6: When the five faculties are asleep, the five hindrances are awake. (Faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom.) There is also the inverse: when the five hindrances are awake, the five faculties are asleep. One gathers dust from the five hindrances; one is purified by the five faculties. 7: The other doctrines are spelled out quite distinctly in D I 12 – 38, the Brahma’s Net sutra. Those awakened ones: a. omniscient Buddhas b. Paccekabuddhas c. arahant disciples d. Those awakened through learning 9: It doesn’t matter if you go forth and live in the forest alone if you are filled with conceit and/or unconcentrated. But if one is of lofty mind, everywhere released one can cross beyond the realm of death. Dhammapada 46: Knowing this body to be like foam, Awakening to its mirage nature, Cutting out Mara’s flowers, one may go Beyond the sight of the King of Death. Mara’s flowers: the whirls of the three levels of existence. Beyond the sight…: beyond Mara’s range, to Nibbana. 10: Complexion: the condition of the complexion is understood to indicate success in meditation. A V:340 (Book of the Elevens, #16): eleven advantages to be looked for from the release of the heart through amity – this includes “his complexion is serene.” S 21:3 “Friend Moggallana, your faculties are serene, your facial complexion is pure and bright. Has the Venerable Mahamoggallana spent the day in peaceful dwelling?” At S 28:1 the same is said to Sariputta by Ananda. 11: Tavatimsa: Realm of the Thirty-Three. 33 youths have been reborn here as a result of meritorious deeds. Nandana is the garden of delight in Tavatimsa. This is the impermanence and unsatisfactoriness of such places exemplified. The deva thought of the glory as permanent, where in reality it remains impermanent and samsaric. 12: How many people see acquisitions as the ultimate delight, truly not understanding how they so easily lead to sorrow. 13: No affection like that for oneself: we will always care for ourselves – feed, clothes, etc. No wealth equal to grain: if we’re starving, it’s really the only thing that matters. The rain is supreme: rain is the visible manifestation of the earthly cycle, without which we would all cease. 14: Each of the Buddha’s replies is much more to the point. This is especially noticeable in the obedient woman as opposed to the maiden; taking away the sexism, the point is that a good woman who is loving and attentive and a true partner is better than someone whose primary qualification is virginity. The good son is the one that matters, and not just because he happens to be first born. I can’t ascertain whether or not primogeniture was the rule in the Buddha’s day, but there seem to be some indications along these lines. 15: The forest can seem welcoming or forbidding, depending on your point of view. In and of itself it is neither; we simply add these interpretations. 16: The Buddha formulates this in a positive manner: dispel the energy of torpor, and the path is opened. 17: The intentions should be understood as the three wrong intentions – sensuality, ill-will, harming. S 35:240 is the “simile of the tortoise”: the tortoise pulls in its head and extremities and the jackal can’t harm it as a result. We can think of our head and extremities as the sense-doors, and Mara as the jackal. In guarding our sense-doors we are protecting ourselves. A bhikkhu would not blame anyone: the bhikkhu will always speak helpfully and compassionately. 19: The Buddha can say that he has no little hut—i.e., a woman’s womb in which he has been born—because he will no longer have a human birth. 20: Beings who perceive what can be expressed: this refers to the aggregate world, the world of mental and physical perception. This easily gives rise to the concept of “I”, given the self-ness nature of the aggregates. One does not conceive ‘one who expresses’: if we can come to full understanding of the aggregates—i.e., use of the non-discursive mind—then we are not going to be drawn into concepts of “I”. Boy, does this sound Mahayana or what? That does not exist for him by which one could describe him… The arahant goes beyond the range of verbal expression, beyond the discursive. One not shaken in the three descriptions: that is, “I am better”, “I am equal,” “I am worse.” These are the three modes of conceit. In S 45:162 the Noble Eightfold Path is stated as the way for their understanding, abandonment, and destruction.